It's fair to say that pop-ups remain one of the most hated forms of online advertising, which is why AOL UK wasn't too surprised when it was forced by users to remove one from its own service:

The advertising campaign for Norwich Union appeared on the AOL front page for just one day before it was removed.

It opened a pop-under box on the bottom of the start bar for a couple of seconds, as it sent a cookie from a customer's machine to the market information group TNS. AOL members expressed concern at the box as it could not be blocked by AOL's pop-up blocker.

There's nothing more annoying that having a new window suddenly appear on your screen while trying to read through a page. Well.., unless you simultaneously spill your cup of coffee all over the keyboard while blurting out expletives at the pop-up, now that's annoying =). More @ Web-User.